Report: U.S. plan unraveled N. Korea deal

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- A broad U.S. plan to verify North Korea's nuclear facilities may have led the country's officials to reverse their denuclearization path, documents indicate.

The United States requested "full access to all materials" at sites that might have had a nuclear purpose in the past and sought "full access to any site, facility or location" considered relevant to the nuclear program, read the four-page document, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. Also, investigators could take photographs and make videos, remain at a site as long as necessary, make repeated visits and collect and remove samples.

When announcing North Korea agreed to end its nuclear program in June, the United States said verification of the country's listing of nuclear facilities would result in the country being removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The breadth of the U.S. verification plan caused friction within the State Department, with some diplomats saying the requested actions were too much to ask of the isolated country, the Post said. Other countries involved in the talks also warned that the verification plan was too far-reaching.

North Korea submitted a counterproposal that eliminated to key provisions -- visits to undeclared facilities and sample-taking. In August, the U.S. submitted a counter to Korea's counterproposal, to which North Korean officials haven't responded.

Since August, the government has barred international inspectors and surveillance equipment from the reactor site and indicated it would resume reprocessing spent fuel rods into weapons-grade plutonium.